Pakistan: Fifteen minutes and a CM

Tahirul Qadri’s return to Pakistan on Monday was an exercise in paradox. The most underwhelming political figure in the country has been turned into a genuine force by a government seemingly convinced that he poses a genuine threat to their rule. By reacting as they have they have unwittingly turned him into precisely the force they were afraid of confronting. Even today, in the wake of his controversial and very public landing in Lahore, Dr Qadri does not pose a political threat to the PML-N within the current democratic framework, which has led many to wonder if he poses a threat to the democratic framework itself and consequently to the ruling party. However it appears that the greatest threat to the democratic government’s legitimacy is its own short-sighted and tactically imbecilic decisions. Tracing the sequence of events since last Tuesday’s massacre in Lahore, it seems that the PML-N is looking to commit political suicide. First there was the incident in Model Town itself, which began when police forcibly tried to remove some innocuous barriers from outside the Minhajul Quran office and then violently turned on protestors who were trying to stop them, killing 11 and injuring more than 80. Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif insisted he knew nothing about the lead-up to the incident and reluctantly removed Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah from his post. But instead of firing Sanaullah with a sharp reprimand, he focused on his friendship with the minister and highlighted their close relationship, effectively taking the heat off Sanaullah and bringing it onto himself. His fortunes are tied closely to his brother the Prime Minister (PM), and when calls for the CM’s resignation began, the PM should have had the perspicacity to recognise that his own standing would be affected if he did not cut his errant brother loose. Instead the federal government ordered Qadri’s flight diverted from Islamabad to Lahore, ostensibly for security reasons, with reports saying the order came from the PM himself. Diverting international flights is no small matter, and now the PM is as caught in this game as his brother was.

Pakistani Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers stormed the barricades in Islamabad and beat up police officers, and Lahore airport saw similar pandemonium when Qadri’s flight finally landed. The airport was closed half the day and dozens of flights were delayed while Qadri refused to disembark without a military escort, making it plain where he believes power in the country lies and who he hopes to woo in order to get it. He finally left at the urging of the Punjab Governor, who met him on the tarmac and escorted him into the city. The military, unsurprisingly, wants nothing to do with this affair since it is busy fighting a battle in the tribal areas, and is probably looking at the antics of the civilian government with apprehension for the future, when this battle is taken to the streets and neighbourhoods of our cities. Mr Qadri’s presence is not only a distraction from the military action upon which so much hinges, it is also dangerously divisive and puts undue pressure on a state mechanism that needs to be geared towards defeating terrorism. Instead, police arrested PAT workers around Punjab, 53 were remanded in Islamabad yesterday, and 1,300 more were booked on terrorism charges. Dr Qadri has received publicity that he could not have dreamt of through the government’s actions, while the government has given ammunition to its detractors. With all the sensational news it is easy to forget where this began, i.e. Lahore last week. The government cannot hope to stem the tide of Tahir-ul-Qadri’s 15 minutes of fame, but it can and must investigate the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice. It may be that the PM will have to sacrifice his brother to the demands of justice, but difficult choices are a part of politics. In this case, after making its own bed of thorns by handling Tahir-ul-Qadri so badly, the government must now lie in it.